Bill Simmons: "96 Bulls are not a top-10 All-time and are worse than the '01 Lakers"

[QUOTE=IBLEEDGREEN43]whether jordan was there or not, you still think he was a better player than kevin mchale.. i consider kevin mchale a top 5 power forward of all time, i dont consider scottie pippen anything except a good player who won titles next to a great player.[/QUOTE]


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottie_Pippen#Pippen_without_Jordan[/url]

[I]Michael Jordan unexpectedly retired in 1993, and the 1994 season marked Pippen's stepping out from Jordan's shadow and he performed as one of the best players in the league. That year, he earned All-Star Game MVP honors. He had perhaps his best season, leading the Bulls in scoring, assists, and the entire league in steals, averaging 22.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 2.9 steals, 0.9 three-pointers, and 0.8 blocks per game, while shooting 49.1% from the field and a career-best 32% from the three-point line. For his efforts, he earned the first of three straight All-NBA First Team nods, and finished third in the MVP voting. The Bulls finished the season with 55 wins, only two less than their previous championship year with Jordan still on the team.[/I]

[QUOTE=-primetime-]fixed[/QUOTE]


believe it or not.. if i had to pick a player, on getting shots off.. i'd take bird in a heartbeart..

[QUOTE=-primetime-][url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottie_Pippen#Pippen_without_Jordan[/url]

[I]Michael Jordan unexpectedly retired in 1993, and the 1994 season marked Pippen's stepping out from Jordan's shadow and he performed as one of the best players in the league. That year, he earned All-Star Game MVP honors. He had perhaps his best season, leading the Bulls in scoring, assists, and the entire league in steals, averaging 22.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 2.9 steals, 0.9 three-pointers, and 0.8 blocks per game, while shooting 49.1% from the field and a career-best 32% from the three-point line. For his efforts, he earned the first of three straight All-NBA First Team nods, and finished third in the MVP voting. The Bulls finished the season with 55 wins, only two less than their previous championship year with Jordan still on the team.[/I][/QUOTE]

thats pretty cool, it doesnt mean anything to me... mchale was better

its not about having better individual talents

Why did the Bulls win 72 games?

Defense. the bulls smothered teams into oblivion

1-5

Harper - Great onball defender with long arms and a high bball IQ and would contain DJ, he certainly wouldnt be flogged by DJ.
Jordan - regarded as the greatest defensive guard ever (certainly top 3)
Pippen - regarded as the greatest defensive small forward ever
Rodman -regarded as one of the top 5 defensive power forwards
Longley - A sound defensive center

The celts had a lot of offensive talent, but as a defensive unit, plus the scoring of Jordan and Pippen and the triangle offence running well, its a very close series

[QUOTE=-primetime-]you don't think Rodman could handle Kareem as well as anyone else could?.[/QUOTE]
:roll: :roll:

*throws up*

The real question is: could Phil Jackson outcoach himself?

DUNN DUNN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNN

not top 10 all-time? bull****.

but 2001 lakers would definitely have chance against them. at least. although '96 bulls are one of best defensive teams ever, shaq would still destroy them in the paint. even prime jordan would have a very hard time matching shaq's production. bulls' role players are probably better, but NO ONE could guard shaq back then. it would come to jordan vs. shaq, but it would be a very tough matchup IMO, that could go either way. another important factor would be rodman - would he be able to annoy shaq and get under skin, possibly draw some charges? if he would, bulls would have a clear upper hand. but, who knows:confusedshrug:

and showtime lakers and '86 celtics are definitely better than '96 bulls. you don't have to consider bird or magic better than jordan to conclude this.

bird, mchale, parish, johnson > jordan & pippen

kareem, magic, worthy > jordan & pippen

you know, I'm watching NBA TV right now and they're showing the 83 finals.. the one where Magic choked all serise and the Lakers got spanked/swept by the Sixers.

Now that I think about it, despite how great those teams are, they've all choked/got outplayed/DESTROYED at one point or another on the big stage.... Celtics by Pistons, Lakers by Pistons, Lakers by Sixers, Lakers by Celtics, Celtics by Sixers, etc, etc.

yeah, I know the usual defense is "both Celtics and Lakers are very, very good teams so they tend to have games where they destroy the others"

But what about Sixers and Pistons?

You're telling me, somehow, the Bulls utter dominance (6-0 in finals, only been pushed to game 7 twice during their six year run) has to be TOTALLY discounted just because their competition was apparently "weaker", while guys like Magic and Bird get free pass, even though one year they're good and next year they could get spanked/destroyed?

And to IBleedCelticGreen, be reasonable. I dont think the Bulls could beat the Celtics either, but it wouldn't be as bad as you make it out to be. One thing I love about people dissing the Bulls is that they always say "The Bulls wouldn't be able to guard so and so", such as you saying "the bulls wouldn't be able to guard McHale or Bird".... but yet you guys always convieniently ignore this guy named, MICHAEL JORDAN.

You say Pip wouldn't be able to guard Bird? Well who the hell is gonna guard Jordan? And for the record, Jordan is better than Bird on offense, and Pip is better than DJ on defense.

I'm not saying the Bulls would win, but why do you guys always convieniently ignore Jordan? I always hear "who on the Bulls would guard Magic? Kareem?" and recently "Who on the Bulls would guard Duncan? Tony Parker?"

yet all those same guys don't answer "who would guard jordan?"

And for the record, Jordan would be a tougher matchup for ANY TEAM IN THE HISTORY OF THE LEAGUE than Bird, Magic, Kareem, Duncan and Tony F*cking Parker ever would.

Look, anytime you guys pull the Bulls against whoever matchup. Just KNOW THIS: Jordan would torch whoever was guarding him WORSE than Magic/Bird/Duncan would torch any member of the Bulls. That's FACT. Bird wouldn't torch Pippen worse than Jordan would torch DJ. Duncan wouldn't torch Rodman worse than Jordan would torch Bowen. Magic wouuldn't torch Ron Harper worse than Jordan would torch Byron Scott. Bill Russell wouldn't torch Longley worse than whoever would be guarding Jordan.

[QUOTE=joe]did i ever, at any point, in ANY post that i've EVER made on this or ANY web site, say that MJ is not the GOAT? NO.

what i said was, the fact that you guys are so threatened by the mere mention of an MJ-led team being beaten, especially by a team that was so talented (Like the 2001 Lakers), might mean that it's time you get some help for your complete homerism of MJ.

And you are a prime example of this. You probably scanned my post, seen that it was Anti-MJ, or at the very least Anti-Bulls, and immediately jumped to the Aid of your Idol, defending his status as GOAT. well guess what buddy? I never said he wasn't GOAT.[/QUOTE]
****ing hell somebody else gets it! there is absolutely no reason why bulls would not have had a run for there money against the 01 lakers, seriously prime shaq and up n coming kobe. would have gone 2 7 with kobe making the last shot on MJ's head.

I've said it for years that the first 3peat Bulls were definately better the 2nd 3peat Bulls. The defensive ball pressure especailly in Chicago stadium was outstanding.

[QUOTE=IBLEEDGREEN43]the 90's bulls.. would literally be like the 2007 cavs in the finals, against the 86 celtics....[/QUOTE]

:oldlol:

Let's not get carried away there, buddy.

2001 Lakers - the greatest team ever assambled. Period. :bowdown:

:rockon:

Just playing. I'm not old enough to know where to rank them all time but that team was freaking dominant and powerful.
Throughout the playoffs Shaq was at 30 ppg and 15 rpg while Kobe was flerting around with numbers like 30-7-6.

Seriously, can a duo get better than that? Hardly.

We can only feel sorry because they lost that one game to the Sixers that they were supposed to win.

Still, the greatest playoff record of all time.

Give it up for the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers. :applause: :bowdown:

****, I sound like LeBron23.

I agree with Bill

the 2001 Lakers didn't lose a game in the Western Conference playoffs that year, they only lost once in the playoffs, game one to the Sixers.

Shaq was the most dominant force in the league, gasp, dare I say more dominant than '96 MJ.

He was get over it.

While it's popular to praise Shaq and Jordan and unpopular to praise Kobe, let's just remember his playoff numbers that year.

29.4 ppg
7.3 rpg
6.1 apg

Those are comparable numbers to Jordan's regular season numbers in 1996

29.6 ppg
5.9 rpg
4.3 apg

In the playoffs, Jordan was at

30.7 ppg
4.9 rpg
4.1 apg

Just throwing it out there. Just to show how good the 2001 Lakers actually were. Shaq was pretty much at his best while Kobe was averaging Jordan type of numbers and let's not forget that the role players were on top of their task too. Just a shame they lost that one game to Philly. 15-0 would've made a great statement, this way that team isn't nearly as appreciated as it should be.